Saturday, January 13, 2018

Zvonimir Trusić: Gotovina is a pussy

Today Zvonimir Trusić with his connections in the police and secret services helps Tihomir Orešković not to be extradited to Germany on suspicion that he participated in the killings of political emigrants Đuro Zagajski and Stjepan Đureković in 1983.

On Croatian 45lines, I have found that Zvonimir Trusić befor Homeland war has been in contact with UDBA, that he was later more times suspected of war crimes in the war, but that thanks to the fact that he remained an associate of the secret services of the new state, he has never been prosecuted. I described his connection with Ante Gugić, a person who before the war was the head of the socialist militia in Sesvete. Gugić was the head of the General Crime Department in Zagreb police in 1991 and conducted an investigation into Zvonimir Trusić for war crimes, but his application was dismissed because the suspects were questioned without a witness. The Croatian public still doubts that Gugić made a deliberate omission.

The most respected Croatian journalist Viktor Ivančić published in Feral Tribune 1995 a criminal charge filed by Ante Gugić against Zvonimir Trusić and others from the so-called Merčep unit.

… The indictment, signed by the head of the department, Ante Gugić, states that the members of the unit under command of Tomislav Merčep, the accused Miroslav Bajramovic, Stjepan Manđarelo and a few others, on 10/31/1991 following the orders of their commander Zvonimir Trusić abducted Miloš Ivoševic, Rade Paić and Marko Gruić at the building site of Ivošević’s house in Zagreb (81 Rudeska cesta). They took them to Pakračka Poljana and handed them over to Branko Šarić a.k.a. Kosa, the headquarters commander at the time, who kept them imprisoned for 10 days. “During that time, the accused Mijo Jajić and other members of the unit physically mistreated the victims (beatings, electric shocks and other)”. During the night between 11/11 and 11/12 the three victims, together with nine other unidentified prisoners, were taken to the village of Bujavica near Pakrac and massacred in the cellar of a family house. The indictment also states that, following the orders of Tomislav Mercep and Zvonimir Trusić, Igor Mikola and Siniša Rimac abducted Ina Zoričić-Nuić a.k.a. Marina, who was a member of the crisis headquarters in the borough of Kraljevica near the city of Rijeka, from the burial of Pavo Mlinarić (also a member of the Merčep’s unit) at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb. After interrogation at the Zagreb fair grounds they drove her toward the locality known as Janja Lipa, about half a mile from Pakračka Poljana, where the accused Antun Jurgec executed the victim. At the same spot, in November 1991, Igor Mikola and Munib Suljićexecuted Aleksandar Antić, a.k.a. Saša, also a member of the reserve police unit; according to the indictment, all that happened “according to the orders of and in collaboration between commanders Tomislav Merčep, Zvonimir Trusić, Đemal Paloš and Zvonimir Zakošek.”

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Mikola thinks that Pavo Mlinarić was executing people even before Mikola and the friends arrived in Pakračka Poljana. Mikola remembers that a German whom they called Saša and a Bosniac who lived in Germany beat on prisoners and pierced their ears with knifes (“every single one talked after that”); in this way they obtained names of other persons who might be ‘interesting’. “That way they formed a list of persons which would be submitted to Tomislav Merčep.” Mikola stated that himself, Miro and Pika (Miljenko Zadro) took a man dressed in a military uniform who had a gun and two hand grenades to a meadow where they shot at him. “Tomica Merčep and Zvonimir Trusić knew about this execution; it is assumed that the guys who interrogated the victim also knew about the execution. Mikola believes that the order for execution was given by Merčep or Trusić. The murdered man was found a day later by some villagers from a nearby Croatian village. He believes that they informed someone about this and were told to remove the body. He is certain that the body was buried, but he doesn’t know where. By the way, he was rarely present during interrogations. As he says ‘our duty was to take people away and kill them, nothing else’.”

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According to the Mikula’s statement, the meeting in the Zagreb restaurant “Trnjanka” which was attended by Merčep, Branimir Glavaš, Stipe Spajić, Zvonimir Trusić and Miro Briševac had the crucial role in the death of Saša Antić. Munib Suljić brought Saša in a blue Volkswagen Rabbit, with police markings. Saša was disarmed at the fairgrounds; when Trusić passed by, he said:” What is he doing here; don’t do that here, take him away.” Sasa was taken handcuffed to Pakračka Poljana; there two prisoners were picked out and they dug a hole at a meadow. Saša told Mikola: “You should kill me, but quickly.” Mikola responded:” Don’t be afraid.” Saša turned and asked him: “How do you want me to stand?” He told him to kneel. When Saša knelt, Mikola shot him from a hand gun in the back of the head. He thought that he shot from a “zbrojovka” which he usually carried with him. When the dead man fell in the hole he fired another bullet, into his heart. After that the two prisoners buried the corpse. Rimac and Suljić were also present at that execution. The report also says this:” He remembers that he was a good friend of Sasa. Sasa even gave him a sweat shirt as a present in Osijek and also gave him a gun. The day before the execution they went for a walk around the city [Zagreb] and had fun. He thinks that Saša’s murder was a test, the purpose of which was to check how obedient he was and whether he was ready to follow any orders. He believes that he would have been next if he refused to obey that order.”

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Two agents of provocateurs at the war veterans’ protest in Rijeka: Branko Škrtić and Zvonimir Trusić.

Siniša Rimac, born in 1973 in Vukovar, interrupted his vocational school after the massacre in Borovo Selo and, together with Igor Mikola, Nebojša Hodak, Pavo Mlinarić and others started a sentry duty. Immediately after his arrival to Gospić, Rimac and the friends completed several actions in which they removed barricades from the streets and captured a military warehouse and 18 members of the so-called JNA [Yugoslav Peoples Army]. They took part in several pursuit actions against Chetniks in the area around Gospić. They found out from Zvonimir Trusić and Stipe Manđarelo in the Zagreb cafe “Style ’92” that Merčep was about to open a new front in Pakrac; hence they also headed that way.

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Munib Suljić stated that he didn’t know anything about the abductions of people from the Zagreb area, and added that “all orders in connection with apartment checks, confiscation of arms and abductions of people from apartments in the Zagreb area were issued by Zvonimir Trusić; he would leave peaces of paper with data in an office inside pavilion number 22 at the Zagreb fairgrounds; whoever was first to arrive to the office would get that piece of paper and had to carry out the checks that were demanded by Trusić.” Suljić emphasized that he never went alone to carry out checks and apartment searches, but that everything was done based on the orders of Trusić, Merčep, or Stjepan Manđarelo. On one occasion Suljić received from Trusić a business card belonging to Borislav Ostojić, from Rijeka. He was told to bring that man to Zagreb together with general Uzelac’s brother. Suljić also said that, according to a Merčep’s order, Siniša Rimac, Igor Mikola, Nebojsa Hodak, Častimir Marić, Željko Bašić and Suljić himself were supposed to travel abroad “in order to carry out checks of people on a certain list of people working against the Croatian authorities.”

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In October, Merčep’s unit liberated Kukunjevac, Toranj and other villages in the Pakrac area; Mercep was wounded in fighting near Lovska. Nikola Rukavina a.k.a. “Pop” who imposed himself, Zvonimir Trusić and Branko Šarić Kosa (Merčep emphasized that he had appointed only Šarić) took over the command of the unit; finally, Đemo Paloš took over the command; “he is the person who knows the most about the events in Pakračka Poljana.”

In the Praljak’s web archive I found that at the end of 1993 Ante Gugić, the policeman who arrested Trusić 1991, now chief of the criminal police in the Herzegovina wrote Slobodan Praljak that he received information from Zvonimir Trusić that Mladen Naletilić Tuta paid 3 million DEM for Praljak’s murder.

In 1993, Zvonimir Trusić founded the Association of Croatian Homeland War Volunteers (UHDDR) with the convicted war criminals Tomislav Merčep and Tihomir Orešković. This was what Tihomir Orešković spoke in an interview with Jasna Babić in Globus.

* You are one of the founders of the Association of Croatian Homeland War Volunteers (UHDDR, together with Tomislav Merčep and Zvonimir Trusić). It sounds like an organization of Croatian “primaries” dissatisfied with roles, status …

– That is not correct. Nobody from the Association does not seek any benefits for himself. On the contrary! We demand not to be neglected by wounded volunteers, widows and orphans.

They need to provide housing, scholarships, jobs… Especially for children of volunteers, because while their fathers have been killed, others have acquired internships, education, and many, and wealth.

* There are other organizations of Croatian defenders in Croatia. Why did you set up a special association if it was not a kind of opposition?

“We have founded it because we are different from most other soldiers of the Republic of Croatia. We were not mobilized. When we went to war in 1991, we were not promised anything, we did not set any conditions regarding wages, apartments or roles. We do not calculate and weave, who will be the winner. We probably differ from those Croatian officers and soldiers who at that time were still followers of Veljko Kadijević, Blagoje Adžić and SK – Yugoslavia Movement.

* I suppose your association also has some political goals?

– Only one: to prevent the rebuilding of any kind of Yugoslavia. If necessary – again with a rifle in our hand.

Today Zvonimir Trusić with his connections in the police and secret services helps Tihomir Orešković not to be extradited to Germany on suspicion that he participated in the killings of political emigrants Đuro Zagajski and Stjepan Đureković in 1983.